A plug for Miniatronics

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:38 pm

Hi All,
I'm a fan of miniatronics, because they package electronics in a way that's friendly to hobbyists. They even bundle resistors with LEDs. I found their stuff in a train store, but we're all out-of-the-box thinkers here.

Anyway, they finally have a web site, and you can get their stuff online or find a dealer. I have, no financial interest, just a fan:

http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:56 pm

Now I know where to go if I have $10 burning a hole in my pocket and I want to buy exactly one LED with it...

I love their micro-mini connectors (and have put a fair amount of effort into finding affordable alternatives) but their prices are steep...

DLMatthys · Post by **DLMatthys** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:03 pm

Yes they are cool if your a neopyhte at elelctronics and lighting.
You learn from it and then your on your way to DIY parts searchs and build circuits from scratch.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:04 pm

Agreed on all counts. Prices could be better. Easier for a newbie to use than the Digikey phonebook.

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:35 pm

zaphod wrote:Agreed on all counts. Prices could be better. Easier for a newbie to use than the Digikey phonebook.

Yeah, but there's a whole lot of viable stuff in between those two extremes. There are lots of electronics shops on line that will sell you the stuff you need for model lighting, and aren't overwhelming like Digi-Key or Mouser, and won't charge an arm and a leg (plus a lung, kidney, pancreas...) for it. In short, places that are actually geared toward electronics hobbyists...

For instance, there's superbrightleds.com (I'm particularly fond of their 360 degree diffused LEDs - great for flooding the interior of a model...)

For non surface-mount LEDs and basic components like resistors, allelectronics is a pretty good choice. They sell 3mm and 5mm white LEDs for around $1 apiece ($1.25, $0.87, $0.95 depending on which specific item) - as opposed to miniatronics' $8.75 for two. They've also got a huge selection of resistors. You can buy a hundred resistors for $3. And if you don't know what value you need, you can pay $12 for an assortment of 610 resistors (10 each of 61 different values...)

If you really want surface-mount LEDs with wires pre-soldered on, you can buy them at HLJ - even shipped from Japan they only come out to about half of the miniatronics price.

There's lots of LEDs on ebay as well - at good prices, in fact. Great way to get a metric buttload of LEDs. And yes, some sellers even do you the favor of throwing in that 3-cent resistor for you. I'd be willing to bet some enterprising soul has even provided surface-mount LEDs with wires soldered on...

Miniatronics' prices on LEDs and other basic components are savage. How much would you spend lighting something if you used only their products? It's crazy. How many years ago was the going rate for white LEDs $3 apiece...? Fifteen? Twenty? I really, really can't recommend them, even for beginners. Not for the basic stuff. Not for things you could buy cheaper at freakin' Radio Shack.

They sell a few specialized products that are hard to come by otherwise: those mini connectors, pre-programmed controller boards - I'm not really sure what else. If you need a microcontroller for something and aren't prepared to learn to program one yourself - then buying one pre-programmed from somewhere is almost your only choice anyway... And I'd say their prices on that sort of thing are probably comparable to other hobby-specialty sellers... (Though, on the other hand - for anyone who knows even a little C, Arduino is a great option these days... For the same $30 you can buy a board that you can program to do what you want... No specialized gear needed...)

severedblue · Post by **severedblue** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:36 pm

Wow their margin is a bit high

but those mini connectors look nice....

PS: You can buy pre-soldered SMT LEDs from HLJ??!? WOW
Do you have a link for that?

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:01 pm

Tetsujin,
if there is a source for parts that you really like, then start a thread and give us a link. There are also some stickies on this forum that would also be worthwhile. I started this thread to share potentially useful information with other modelers - that's all that's happening here.

severedblue · Post by **severedblue** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:07 pm

On the contrary I welcome Tetsujin's comparison
Most of the items that Tetsujin advised are already in the sticky threads

If you're on the Internet you should stack up to your competitors
and I'm glad he did the shopping around for me

I also thank you too; it's always good to see alternatives

robiwon · Post by **robiwon** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:58 pm

Well a lot have been swooning over those mini plugs. At $12 for wired plugs sounds like a great deal. But of course there are other options if you can do it yourself, check these out. Compare prices.

http://www.radicalrc.com/shop/?shop=1&cat=56

Umi_Ryuzuki · Post by **Umi_Ryuzuki** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:50 am

Everyone seems to ignore those whenever I post them,... but...

Deans Micro Plugs... two three and four pin connectors.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wt ... &search=Go

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:48 am

I'm not entirely sure (since the Radical RC link is the only link I have that shows those Deans plugs with a ruler for scale - and they're using a non-metric ruler) but I think the spacing on the Deans plugs is 2mm. The spacing on the Miniatronics connectors (based on measurements of the ones I have) appears to be 1.25mm. So the Miniatronics ones are quite a bit smaller.

For a while I was looking on Digi-key and Mouser for alternatives: I found some 1.25mm spaced pin headers and sockets that were just a bit bigger than the Miniatronics ones, but they were relatively expensive (around $0.60 per pin, IIRC) so I never got too many of 'em... and at this point I'm not even sure how to find them again... I've mostly settled on 2mm pin headers instead - they're cheaper and easier to find.

Oh, and the link for LEDs and things on HLJ: just search for "LEDs" and then choose the category "LEDs, motors, etc.":
Search results

No white LEDs, it seems...

severedblue · Post by **severedblue** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 5:17 pm

Sorry , posted in wrong topic

Umi_Ryuzuki · Post by **Umi_Ryuzuki** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 5:45 pm

My thoughts are, "Why would I pay $12 for plug and wires, when I can get
a Plug for $1.50? Size be dang...

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 6:00 pm

And Jameco has multi-conductor mini-flat plugs (the type your PC's Sound Board connects to the DVD/CD with) for 0.30-0.50 each - 2-12 conductor

Those prices are really high

severedblue · Post by **severedblue** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 6:37 pm

What category in Jameco are they filed under?

USS Atlantis wrote:And Jameco has multi-conductor mini-flat plugs (the type your PC's Sound Board connects to the DVD/CD with) for 0.30-0.50 each - 2-12 conductor

Those prices are really high

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 6:52 pm

Ok

.50-.60 each

Misc connectors

What you're looking for is #4 (male), #9 (RA Female) and #14 (Straight female) on the list

Those are the 4-pin models - click on the "Data Sheet" link for the part #'s for the rest of the series (2-12 pin)

severedblue · Post by **severedblue** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:09 pm

Thank you sir; very much obliged. I'm still learning how to navigate the Jameco site.

I'm going to order in some of these connectors so I can block it out on my model kits before drilling holes

Thanks again.

USS Atlantis wrote:Ok

.50-.60 each

Misc connectors

What you're looking for is #4 (male), #9 (RA Female) and #14 (Straight female) on the list

Those are the 4-pin models - click on the "Data Sheet" link for the part #'s for the rest of the series (2-12 pin)

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:13 am

Wow, I hadn't heard of Jameco before, but they're definitely more economical. Nice web site, as well.

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:44 am

USS Atlantis wrote:And Jameco has multi-conductor mini-flat plugs (the type your PC's Sound Board connects to the DVD/CD with) for 0.30-0.50 each - 2-12 conductor

0.1" pin headers are pretty common. The Miniatronics connectors are brutally priced, but the great thing about 'em is they're about half the size of the much more common 0.1" pin headers. For sure if you've got the space for 0.1" pins, that's fine... But for tight spaces there are significantly better alternatives...

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:29 am

tetsujin wrote:
USS Atlantis wrote:And Jameco has multi-conductor mini-flat plugs (the type your PC's Sound Board connects to the DVD/CD with) for 0.30-0.50 each - 2-12 conductor
0.1" pin headers are pretty common. The Miniatronics connectors are brutally priced, but the great thing about 'em is they're about half the size of the much more common 0.1" pin headers. For sure if you've got the space for 0.1" pins, that's fine... But for tight spaces there are significantly better alternatives...

You have a source for these, oh wise one?

My Google-fu seems not up to the task of finding them

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:10 pm

USS Atlantis wrote:
tetsujin wrote:
USS Atlantis wrote:And Jameco has multi-conductor mini-flat plugs (the type your PC's Sound Board connects to the DVD/CD with) for 0.30-0.50 each - 2-12 conductor
0.1" pin headers are pretty common. The Miniatronics connectors are brutally priced, but the great thing about 'em is they're about half the size of the much more common 0.1" pin headers. For sure if you've got the space for 0.1" pins, that's fine... But for tight spaces there are significantly better alternatives...
You have a source for these, oh wise one?

What, 0.1" pin headers? Or 0.05" pin headers?

I had a source for 0.05" pin headers, but they were expensive and I lost the part number. It was hard to find 'em in the first place so I expect it'll be hard to find 'em again... (Though it was on either Digi-key or Mouser) 2mm size is much easier to find and more reasonably priced as well, so I usually just buy those - it still saves me a bit of space compared to the 2.54mm spacing of the 0.1" pin headers.

As for 0.1" pin headers - I usually buy 'em on Mouser when I need 'em. But All Electronics has some, Sparkfun has some, Mouser and Digi-key both have 'em obviously... It's a very common size, in part because it's the same spacing as a PDIP IC.

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:12 pm

I was looking for the smaller ones (.05-.08)

Plenty of sources for .1

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 7:11 pm

USS Atlantis wrote:I was looking for the smaller ones (.05-.08)

OK, that makes sense. I was wondering why on earth anybody would have to ask where to find 0.1" pin headers... :)

.08" is 2mm... There are these ones on Digi-Key:
S5800-40-ND (snappable 2mm pin headers)
S5751-40-ND (non-snappable 2mm pin socket headers)

That's about $5 for 40 pins. ($0.12 per pin+socket) - But since the sockets are non-snappable, that means you need to cut 'em (losing a pin with each cut) - so it's fair to say it averages out to about $0.15-$0.20 per pin/socket pair when you factor in the pins lost from cutting.

There's also these ones on Mouser: I bought some of these a couple years back. They're more expensive than the ones on Digi-key but that's because they're machined pins, and the socket headers are snappable (though it's tough to snap 'em without effectively losing a pin...) I think they're a bit smaller than the Digi-key ones, too.
830-10-050-10-001000 (2mm machine-pin 50 position snappable pin headers)
831-93-050-10-001000 (2mm machine-pin 50 position snappable pin socket headers)

That's about $17 for 50 pins and 50 sockets - about $0.34 per pin before you factor in pins or sockets damaged in the snapping process...

severedblue · Post by **severedblue** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:09 pm

I am glad I found this place. You guys are a wellspring of knowledge and I hope one day I can give back.

EDIT : Tetsujin

if the connector isn't snappable is a sharp scalpal / modelling knife the best way for a clean cut? It may sound obvious but I'm wondering why it being snappable matters or not, or why pins are being lost?

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:17 pm

Snapable headers have grooves between each pin, making it easy to "snap" them apart in custom lengths (2 pin, 10pin, etc)

Non-snapable doesn't have the grooves, so the easiest place to separate them is where a pin is, less plastic to break apart

That's where the "losing a pin" happens

And Tet, thanks for the links, but I was hoping for plugs/sockets rather than the "old fashioned' headers - I knew about the smaller footprint versions of those already

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:28 pm

USS Atlantis wrote:Snapable headers have grooves between each pin, making it easy to "snap" them apart in custom lengths (2 pin, 10pin, etc)

Non-snapable doesn't have the grooves, so the easiest place to separate them is where a pin is, less plastic to break apart

The socket-pins on the non-snappable 2mm socket headers are actually so close together that it's almost practically impossible to cut without losing a pin. In a couple cases I cut between two pin sockets and then salvaged both adjacent pin sockets by gluing them into place...

And Tet, thanks for the links, but I was hoping for plugs/sockets rather than the "old fashioned' headers

Huh? What's the difference? Are you looking for connectors that are keyed for polarity or made to lock together or something? Or shrouded connectors? The Jameco link included some of those and some plain headers - I assumed you were talking about the plain headers... (I never used the keyed stuff - it's extra bulk and extra cost... Though obviously I can see why they would be useful...)

(EDIT): Though, of course, I should have counted down the list to see the specific items you were pointing out, and I would have seen that you were, in fact, referring to locking, shrouded, keyed connector sets... Oh well! :)